Does Richards-Ross have eyes on the prize?

Sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross and high jumper Jesse Williams of the United States attends an USOC Athletics press conference on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games. STU FORSTER, GETTY IMAGES

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Sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States attends an USOC Athletics press conference on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games. STU FORSTER, GETTY IMAGES

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Richards-Ross is one of the U.S. athletes who are part of a Twitter campaign demanding changes in Olympic Rule 40 — which, among other things, does not permit athletes "to promote any brand, product or service within a posting, blog or tweet or otherwise on any social media platforms or on any websites." MATT ROURKE, AP

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Richards-Ross is one of the U.S. athletes who are part of a Twitter campaign demanding changes in Olympic Rule 40 — which, among other things, does not permit athletes "to promote any brand, product or service within a posting, blog or tweet or otherwise on any social media platforms or on any websites." MATT ROURKE, AP

She is about to be one of two other things, too: a terrific multi-tasker or a distracted would-be champion.

The women's 400-meter final is Saturday. Much to her delight, her husband will be on hand.

That's notable because Aaron Ross, cornerback, would ordinarily be popping pads at Jacksonville Jaguars camp. But the Jags have let him take three days off to be with his wife in London.

If the Olympics can budge the NFL off its chronometer, it must be a powerful worldwide force.

"It's unprecedented," Richards-Ross said Monday. "I'm so excited. He's never had a chance to watch me run in a major competition before."

That is not the problem.

The problem might be that Richards has also been concentrating on the 40.

. That is, Rule 40, the International Olympic Committee's restriction on what it calls "ambush marketing," or having an athlete use the Games by representing a product that isn't already one of the IOC's official partners.

Richards and several other athletes, from various countries, mounted a Twitter blitz called #WeDemandChange.

In fact, the IOC tries to ban athletes from tweeting or blogging about their sponsors if those sponsors are not Visa, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and the eight other official benefactors.

"Only two percent of U.S. athletes are able to tweet about their sponsors because only two percent of athletes have USOC or IOC sponsors," Richards-Ross said.

"I just believe that the Olympic ideal and the Olympic reality are different. Six billion dollars is being traded during the Games. I think it's unjust that athletes are not part of the conversation. Athletes just want to be considered."

The IOC, for its part, says that the ban only lasts for the month surrounding the Games themselves, and that it sends out much of its revenue to national committees in hopes that the money trickles down to athletes.

Twitter has become Pandora here, out of the box and slithering venomously.

Greek triple-jumper Voula Papachristou was left home after a racist tweet about African immigrants.

Michel Morganella, a Swiss soccer player, observed that Koreans should "burn themselves" and were "retards" after South Korea beat his team. His return ticket to the Alps was processed a week and a half earlier than planned.

And a Brit who lives in the U.S. organized a Twitter assault on NBC and included the work e-mail address of the head of NBC Olympics. NBC asked that the man's account be suspended, and it was.

All that, plus the inexplicable attention given Hope Solo's toxic Tweets toward Brandi Chastain, makes us wonder if we missed the meeting when it was decided that people's microburst opinions are actually worth our attention.

Clearly, Richards-Ross & Co. should be able to Tweet whatever they want.

But if you read Rule 40 – and the IOC devoted huge website space to explain it – you know that it's fine for an athlete to be featured in an ad with a non-sponsor as long as there is no specific reference to the Games.

Rule 40 just doesn't want Richards-Ross to be on a billboard drinking Pepsi as she is crossing the finish line, in official Team USA garb. That is not an outlandish thing for Coca-Cola to ask, considering the investment.

Yes, it does bring up queasy images of Barcelona, when Michael Jordan did everything but bleach the Reebok symbol off his warmups.

During all the questions to Richards-Ross, a USA Track and Field functionary helplessly reminded the media, "We do have a track meet here."

She should also remind Richards-Ross that she shouldn't be spending one calorie worrying about her sponsors, their sponsors, anybody else's sponsors, Twitter, Facebook, Netscape, AOL or MySpace.

Not now, anyway.

She was favored in Beijing and finished third. She is 27. This is game time. She can fire up the Twitter campaign after the Closing Ceremonies.

"We understand the IOC wants to protect its sponsors, but we want to have a voice as well," Richards-Ross said. "We just wanted to make a statement, but in a day or two our focus will shift to what we came to do here."

Like flicking a switch? Does it work like that?

"I know what we're all here for, and that's to compete," Richards-Ross said.

We shall see.

A lot of good karma is on the brink. Aaron Ross won his first Super Bowl six months before Beijing, with the Giants. In February, he held up his end again.

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